>
>
> B. Lane Robertson wrote:
>
> > Going out on a limb, I suggest that the evolution
> > of a note according to a "step" pattern
> > (1,1,.5,1,1,1,.5) could imply the evolution of
> > *any* idea as, first, itself (1); then a
> > redundancy (1), thus the dichotomy (.5), the
> > similar one (1), the different one (1), the whole
> > difference between (1), and so the resolution
> > (.5). This is a "seventh son" generational chart
> > (like the biblical prophecy which suggested the
> > birth of Jesus... that is, seventh son of a
> > seventh son-- which would be a .5 *resolution*
> > "redundant"... or self-reflexive "word become
> > flesh" [except in this case, a note become
> > embodied?]).
> >
>
> Sorry, but this first part will take me a little while to digest, i
> never before noted a similarity between the math of our scales, and what
> you mention, so Ill start looking into why we use the scales we use -
> historicaly of course.
>
>
>
> > Anyway, as a pattern organization; the scale
> > structure would seem to be an organization which
> > is "productive" as far as being both repetitive
> > and "levelled" (as the same note becomes "another"
> > note at the next octave). So, I would agree that
> > the scale would be a pattern; but, still wonder
> > what central idea is being replicated?
>
> I think that the "central idea" in the musical sense is a type of good
> vs bad. I suspect that unwittingly our ancestors engrained ehis scale
> into our minds - and that any other scale sounds "wrong" or "bad" to
> most westerners. I would go so far as to say that there is a correlation
> in the mind between "good and our scale" and "bad and non-western
> scales". Fortunately the most that ever really becomes of it is that
> music using other scales acheives no success either financially or
> publicly here is the states. I would say that the scale is the memetic
> foundation that either permits music into the mindspace, or counters
> opposing scales - preventing the musical message from getting in.
> About "ideas" in sound: I suppose we need another word for "idea"
> when it is only musical. Perhaps it is nuance? Ill keep on it.
>
> Sodom
> Bill Roh
The only major difference between scales is the number of steps in
an octave; western or otherwise, they're all subdivided into octaves.
There seems to be something universal in the human auditory
perception of frequency doubling; methinks it has something to do
with harmonics. Joe